System and popen system call

System executes a shell command

1 #include <stdio.h>
2 #include <stdlib.h>
3 
4 int main(void) {
5    if (system("/usr/bin/date")) // Always use a full or a relative path!!!
6        fprintf(stderr,"ERROR: %m\n");
7 
8         return(0);
9 }

Security issue

As system() searches through $PATH to find the executable file - it is possible to put an executable with the same name earlier in $PATH and run a bogus and evil program.

Make your own system

 1 #include <stdio.h>
 2 #include <stdlib.h>
 3 #include <sys/types.h>
 4 #include <unistd.h>
 5 #include <wait.h>
 6 #include <errno.h>
 7 
 8 
 9 int my_system(const char *command) {
10         int wstatus;
11         int pid;
12 
13         if (command[0] != '/') {
14                 errno=EPERM;
15                 return(EPERM);
16         }
17 
18         if ((pid=fork()) == 0) { // Child
19                 execl("/bin/sh", "sh", "-c", command, (char *) NULL);
20                 return(0);
21         } else {
22                 if (pid < 0) // fork failed
23                         return(pid);
24                 if (pid > 0) { //Parent
25                         while(wait(&wstatus) > 0);
26                         return(0);
27                 }
28         }
29 }
30 
31 
32 int main(void) {
33         if (my_system("date"))
34                 fprintf(stderr,"ERROR: %m\n");
35         if (my_system("/usr/bin/date"))
36                 fprintf(stderr,"ERROR: %m\n");
37         return(0);
38 }